Fields of Operation
WILDERNESS EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
Beyond the Golden Hour
The wilderness environment where mountain rescues take place is fundamentally different from an urban EMS environment. Mountain rescue patients are often several hours or even days from an ambulance or hospital. Cellular phone reception is limited or non-existent and when someone in a hiking group is injured, other members of their party must hike for several hours just to ask for help. Many times, we are not even called for hours after an injury as a result. This is a challenging EMS environment that our EMT's and Paramedics are trained to deal with.
In partnership with SOLO Schools, our EMT's receive additional training in wilderness EMS. Wilderness EMT's receive extensive training in subjects including: environmental injuries (hypo/hyperthermia, frostbite, dehydration, hyponatremia, etc.), bites and stings, long-term treatment of orthopedic and soft-tissue injuries, as well as situational awareness and operational considerations.
High Standards of Care
Mountain Rescue prides itself on the high standard of care it provides. Few all-volunteer search and rescue operations can boast the high level of training and professionalism this team does. All volunteers are required to hold a certification of wilderness first aid and CPR-Pro before participating as a member of the team. All team members must become an EMT within 18 months and then upgrade to Wilderness EMT within the following year. Continuing medical training occurs regularly and is integrated into monthly team trainings.
We are an ACLS provider under MCSO with several paramedics and physicians as members of the team. Under the supervision of our base hospital, John C. Lincoln North Mountain, we provide advanced life support care to patients in the back-country setting.
Highly Technical
Providing medical care in a technical rescue environment is very challenging and there are many considerations taking place at once. Providing medical care to a patient on a cliff face, on an icy slope, or while dangling 100 feet below a helicopter is what this team does and situational awareness and the ability to multi-task is key to the success of the rescue. We meet this challenge. In a recent Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) reaccreditation, this team scored perfectly in the medical treatment evaluation.
For more information on wilderness EMS training or to get started on a wilderness first aid class, visit our Medical Training page or email wildernessmedicine@mountainrescue.org